“I’m sorry to bother you. I stopped by my apartment to pick up a few more things. I’m almost certain someone was inside my apartment and I wondered if you noticed anything.”
Carlita said the first thing that popped into her head. “Oh dear, Shelby. Was anything taken?”
“Not that I can tell.”
Mercedes leaned her hip on the doorframe. “What makes you think someone was inside your apartment?”
“I left my bedroom light on and when I got there, the light was off.”
“Maybe the bulb burned out,” Mercedes suggested.
“The switch was off. The light works.”
Carlita remembered turning off all of the lights inside Shelby’s apartment after Elvira, Mercedes and she had finished searching it the previous night.
She didn’t want to lie to Shelby, so Carlita decided her best bet was to change the subject. “How is it going at your uncle’s place? Have you heard back from the post office on when you can return to work?”
“No.” Shelby’s face fell. “I left a message for my supervisor this morning, but haven’t heard a peep. I got a call from the investigators this morning. They want me to come in to answer more questions.”
“At least they’re not showing up on your doorstep with an arrest warrant,” Mercedes said.
“Do you have a minute, Shelby?” Carlita opened the door wider and smiled. “There’s something I would like to talk to you about.”
Shelby noted the solemn expression on Carlita’s face and her chin started to quiver. “You’re not going to evict me and Violet, are you?”
“I hope not,” Carlita said. “Please. Come in.”
Shelby clutched her purse and took a tentative step inside the apartment.
Carlita led the young woman to the dining room table and pulled out a chair. She decided a direct approach was best. “Who is Quinton Towns?”
“How do you know about Quinton?”
“Elvira took a picture of a man who was lurking around the apartment building the same day your apartment was ransacked. She did a little research and found out the man’s name is Quinton Towns.”
“Quinton is Robert’s brother. He called my cell phone and asked to meet with me. I told the authorities he was harassing me, but I don’t think they took me seriously.”
“Do you think Quinton might be involved in Robert’s death?”
“It’s possible. He said something about some missing money. I don’t trust Quinton.” Shelby clasped her hands. “Now that I think about it, he also mentioned someone by the name of Pat, just like Robert.”
“I need to get going.” Shelby glanced at her watch. “I borrowed my uncle’s truck and he’s probably starting to worry.”
Carlita walked Shelby to the door and waited until she was gone before turning to her daughter. “We now have one more mystery person…Pat.”
Chapter 19
Mercedes headed to her room while Carlita grabbed Brittney and Vinnie’s fast food and walked over to their apartment.
The hall was quiet, and Carlita shifted the bags of food to her other hand before rapping lightly on the apartment door. She heard movement from within. The door opened and Vinnie emerged.
“This is yours.” Carlita handed him the bags of food. “Mercedes said she and Brittney had fun shopping.”
“You should see the load of loot Brittney came home with.”
“I hope you can afford her shopping habit,” Carlita chuckled.
“We’re fine. If Brittney’s happy, then I’m happy.”
“Carlita studied Vinnie’s expression. He did seem happy and even though she was disappointed to discover he was moving to New Jersey instead of Savannah, his happiness was what was important. The only problem she had with the situation was her son was now related to a mafia boss.
If nothing else, Atlantic City would put a little distance between the couple and the “family,” at least that’s what Carlita hoped would be the case. “Were you able to take care of your errand earlier today?”
“Yeah. I did my part.” Vinnie shrugged. “Now it’s up to Vito to handle the rest. My work here is done and now it’s time for Brittney and me to head north.”
“You still plan on leaving in the morning?”
“Yeah. We’re heading out early. It’s about a twelve-hour drive from here, so I want to be on the road by six tomorrow morning.”
“That is early.”
“We’ll load the car tonight, but I figured we could get together for dinner if you want.”
“Of course. How about if I whip up one of your favorite Italian dinners?”
“Spaghetti and meatballs,” Vinnie guessed.
“Yes. I have some errands to take care of at six. In the meantime, I’ll whip up some spaghetti and meatballs and have them ready later this evening.”
“That sounds good, Ma.”
Brittney emerged from the apartment. “I thought I heard voices. How do you like my new shoes?” She squeezed past her husband and wobbled into the hall. “These are my new favorite pair. They’re Christian Louboutin.”
She tilted her foot and modeled the gray-green mini spike stiletto heels.
“Those are nice,” Carlita said. “You wouldn’t catch me wearing them. I would break my neck.”
“They look expensive. How much for this pair Brit?” Vinnie waved his hand, not giving his wife a chance to answer. “Never mind. I’m sure I don’t want to know.”
Brittney blew Vinnie a kiss and tottered back inside the apartment.
“I’ll let you go, son. What do you say we have dinner around seven-thirty at my place? It will give Tony a few minutes to clean up after he closes the store.”
“Sounds good, Ma.”
With dinner plans in place, Carlita returned to the apartment. Before she stepped inside, she glanced at Shelby’s apartment door. She was on the fence about confessing to the young woman that she, along with Mercedes and Elvira, had snooped.
Surely, Shelby was curious to know how Carlita and Mercedes knew about Quinton. She quickly decided it was best to let it go for now.
Carlita pulled the ground beef from the fridge to start making the meatballs. After mixing the ingredients and forming the balls, she stacked them inside a bowl, covered it with plastic and placed it in the fridge.
Mercedes hurried into the kitchen. “I did a little digging around on Emmett Pridgen, the business development guy Vinnie paid a visit to earlier. The guy is shadier than a palm tree.”
“Really?” Carlita hung her apron on the hook near the pantry. “Shady as in how?”
“Maybe not shady, but definitely suspicious. He’s only been a member of the city council for about a year. In that short amount of time, he’s spearheaded several special interest projects including the downtown warehouse project, which tentatively includes a casino gambling venue.”
“Gambling isn’t legal in Georgia,” Carlita said.
“Ah, and that is where you’re wrong. There’s a gambling boat in South Georgia. I’m not sure of the exact location. The gambling boat travels out far enough to hit international waters and then the passengers are allowed to gamble.”
“So this Emmett Pridgen is trying to open a gambling boat in Savannah. It doesn’t make him a criminal.”
“Pridgen was investigated for allegedly accepting kickbacks in Atlanta for some business dealings. The case was headed to trial until the lead investigator, a man by the name of Mason, mysteriously vanished and the case was dropped.”
“Pridgen killed him?” Carlita asked.
“That’s my theory, but it’s hard to prosecute when there’s no body.”
“The investigator, Mason, never surfaced?”
“Nope.” Mercedes shook her head. “Dead or alive.”
“So you think this city official, Pridgen, may be responsible for Robert Towns’ death?” Carlita asked.
“It makes sense. I’m not ruling out anyone, including Quinton Towns.”
“Don’t forget Vito
Castellini and his ‘associates.’ I don’t understand how Robert was involved and there’s still the mystery of the backpack and cash. I sure wish we could figure out who owns the Harner Street property.”
“Well, that’s the other thing I found out. We know it’s owned by East Coast Ventures. Annie told us that. What we need now are the partners’ names. If we can figure out who owns the property, I think we’ll have another piece of the puzzle.”
“How do we do that?” Carlita asked.
“Skip trace.” Mercedes explained skip tracing was an online service used to track down fugitives or people wanted by the law. “You can also use it to find out who owns specific property.”
“We could ask Elvira.”
“I already thought about that. If Elvira operated a skip tracer service, she would’ve offered it to us by now, for a fee, of course.” Mercedes tapped her chin. “I was thinking we could ask Annie. She might know someone who has a skip tracing service, especially since she works in the real estate business.”
“I saw Annie’s car in front of her office earlier. Why don’t we run over there to see if she can help?”
“Let’s do it.” Mercedes ran to her room to grab her cell phone and met her mother in the hall. “I feel good about this. I think we’re about to crack this case wide open.”
Carlita cast a glance at Shelby’s apartment door. “Hopefully, it leads us to someone other than Shelby. C’mon Rambo.”
“Right?” Mercedes bounded down the steps and Carlita and Rambo followed behind.
“Before we do that, let’s see if Tony was able to crack the code on the laptop.” Carlita stepped into the back of the pawnshop. The store was empty and she spotted her son sitting at the desk, staring at a computer screen.
“Is this the computer we found?” Carlita said in her son’s ear.
Tony jumped. “You scared me half to death.”
“Sorry, son. Were you able to unlock the laptop?”
“No. I tried a hundred different combinations. So far nothing is working.”
“Annie is a whiz with technical stuff. We could ask her to try to unlock the computer.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Tony said. “It’s hard for me to focus on it in between helping customers.”
A customer entered the store. “See?” Tony shut the laptop and handed it to his mother.
“Thanks for trying, son.”
Rambo led them out of the pawnshop and onto the sidewalk out front.
A gentle breeze blew around the side of the building and Carlita gazed up at the clear blue skies. “What a beautiful day.”
“Yes, it is,” Mercedes agreed. “It would be a perfect day to solve a mystery.”
Chapter 20
Carlita caught a glimpse of Cindy, Annie’s assistant, sitting at her desk, but there was no sign of Annie.
Cindy waited for the women to step into the real estate office. “Hello, ladies…and Rambo.”
Rambo trotted across the room to greet Cindy and she gave him a quick pat on the head before reaching into her desk drawer where she pulled out a small box of doggie treats and gave one to the pooch.
Rambo rewarded her with a hand lick before accepting the treat and plopping down on the floor to enjoy it.
“Annie is in the conference room, finishing up with a client. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Maybe,” Carlita said. “I’ll let Mercedes explain.”
“We need to find someone who offers skip tracing services.”
“To track down a property owner?”
“Exactly.” Mercedes nodded.
“I think Annie might know someone. Did you check with Elvira? I would think with her investigative services company, she would have access to skip tracing.”
“We haven’t. We decided to ask Annie first.”
“…and I’ll touch base with you tomorrow.” Annie and a woman emerged from the back and they walked to the front door. “I’m sure we’ll be able to find you the perfect property.”
The woman thanked Annie and exited the office.
“Two visits in one week.” Annie crossed the room. “What’s the occasion?”
“We need your help again,” Carlita said. “We’re looking for someone who offers skip tracing services.”
“Oh.” Annie lifted a brow.
“We’re hoping a skip trace might help us track down the names of the owners of the Harner Street property.” Carlita placed the password-locked laptop on the desk. “We were also hoping that you and your mad scientist creative-mind would be able to help us unlock this laptop.”
“You don’t have the password?”
Carlita and Mercedes exchanged a glance. “It…doesn’t belong to us. We want to know what’s on it.”
“I see. Well, the less I know the better.” Annie pulled the computer to her and lifted the lid. “This has a fairly simple locking system. The laptop appears to be a couple of years old.” She tapped the screen. “It might take a minute.”
“Take your time.”
“And…okay, I’ve got it.” Annie hummed under her breath as she searched the laptop.
“What did you do?” Mercedes leaned forward.
Annie grinned. “I can’t give away all of my secrets. I learned a lot on the internet while building my robot, Tinker.” She grew quiet. “Hmm... About the only thing on this computer is a booking site.”
“Booking?” Carlita asked.
“It’s an online website.” Annie went on to explain the program operated a lot like financial software. “I heard about this a while back. It’s actually pretty slick. The bookie directs his clients to a website, where bets are recorded, tracked and totaled. The bookie can then log on to see who owes — or is owed — money in the coming week.”
“So it’s legal online gambling?” Carlita asked.
“No way.” Annie shook her head. “It’s illegal as all get-out. Most of these companies are overseas, so they’re hard to track. If the bookie keeps moving, it’s almost impossible for the authorities to catch them.”
“We suspect the laptop belonged to Robert, Shelby’s ex, but we can’t be certain,” Carlita confessed.
“There’s something else on here.” Annie tapped the keys. “You won’t need a skip trace service after all.” She turned the laptop.
Carlita squinted her eyes. “What am I looking at?”
“It’s a copy of the deed for 412 Harner Street, owned by East Coast Ventures. The second line lists the owner’s name.”
“Robert,” Carlita whispered.
Mercedes peered over her mother’s shoulder. “This ties the property to Robert, along with the money we found. What if Robert owed someone money and they took him out?”
“This still doesn’t tie into the Black Stallion or explain why Quinton Towns has been snooping around our place,” Carlita said.
“We know Quinton was Robert’s brother. For some reason, Quinton didn’t know about the Harner Street property, so he came after Shelby, thinking Robert had given her the cash we found in the backpack.”
“You two have been busy,” Annie said.
“I think we should go ahead with the skip tracing to verify the ownership of Harner Street,” Mercedes said.
“This proves Robert owns the property.” Carlita jabbed her finger at the laptop.
“No, it doesn’t.” Mercedes stubbornly shook her head.
After a brief stare down, Carlita relented. “Go ahead with the skip trace.”
Annie moved the laptop off to the side and turned her attention to her computer. “I have a colleague at another real estate company who offers skip tracing as a side business. I used it a few months ago to track down a deadbeat tenant for a friend.”
“How much does it cost?” Carlita asked.
“If it’s a simple online search and the information is easily located, I think I paid about a hundred bucks.”
“A hundred dollars,” Carlita gasped. “I’m not sure I want the information that badly.
”
“Yes, we do.” Mercedes frowned at her mother. “We do want the information.”
Carlita muttered something unintelligible under her breath. “Okay, but we’re not going to pay more than a hundred dollars.”
“Let me make a quick phone call.” Annie reached for her cell phone and Mercedes motioned to her mother. “We have to clear Shelby’s name and Vinnie’s for that matter. Think about it. You saw Vinnie enter a city office. Ten bucks says he was meeting with Emmett Pridgen to maybe grease his palms for Castellini and move the casino boat project along. What if Pridgen is a killer?”
“How does this involve Robert and Quinton Towns?” Carlita asked.
“My theory is Pridgen and the Towns brothers worked together to set up a scam, or maybe it wasn’t even a scam, to find investors interested in investing in the casino boat venture. They targeted established casino owners, including those in Atlantic City and Vito Castellini. Robert purchased the property under an LLC so that he had some weight with city officials as a property owner, and then the trio started luring in the investors.”
Carlita picked up. “Robert got greedy. If they were messing with the mafia, they were playing with fire and Robert got burned.”
“I bet there’s also some sort of connection to the Black Stallion Club. Which reminds me, we need to ask Annie if she can tell us who owns the club.”
“Hey.” Annie covered her cell phone. “It’s gonna be seventy-five dollars for a quickie skip trace. Yes or no?”
“Ugh. Yes,” Carlita said. “I’m going to write this off as a business expense. Can they send me a bill?”
“Can you run the trace and then send me the bill?” Annie paused. “Yeah. I can vouch for my client. Good. Okay. Call me back when you finish the trace.” Annie thanked the person on the other end and then disconnected the call. “He said the search will only take about ten minutes, tops.”
“We’ll wait here if you don’t mind,” Carlita said. “We also wondered if you could tell us who owns the Black Stallion Club. We think there may be a link.”
“Sure. I can check while we’re waiting.” Annie clicked the keys. “The Black Stallion has been around for as long as I can remember. It’s kind of a rough joint. The place has had its share of black eyes, the occasional brawl, arrests and a few drug busts, but nothing serious enough to shut them down.”
The Family Affair: A Made in Savannah Cozy Mystery (Made in Savannah Cozy Mysteries Series Book 9) Page 12
